Patch 3.0 For SimCity Promises to Fix Traffic (Again)

[Steven Bogos]

Patch 3.0 For SimCity Promises to Fix Traffic (Again)

The patch is being prepped for deployment later this week, and aims to improve traffic, add variation to hotels, and fix bugs.

If you are one of the five people still playing the colossal train wreck that is SimCity (2013) you might be interested to know that Maxis is prepping another major patch for the game, due out later this week. Patch 3.0 promises to fix traffic issues (I thought the last patch was supposed to do that?), add a bunch of new hotel models to increase variety, and fix a some other issues. If it's anything like the previously released patch 2.0, it will also introduce a whole new suite of bugs to frustrate its dwindling playerbase.

Other tweaks to the game include changes to ground and air pollution. Trees now last longer, but eliminate less ground pollution, and radiation will generate less ground pollution. Air pollution should also be 'fixed', no longer generating large amounts of phantom pollution for no reason.

Some bugfixes to trading, including improving the reliability of gifting and making sewage trading more reliable, should come as a welcome relief to those of you whose cities are literally drowning in fecal matter following the 2.0 sewage bug. Resource and delivery trucks will also no longer permanently vanish if they get stuck in regional traffic for too long.

I feel like this is a big case of too little, too late. No matter how many minor bugfix patches Maxis releases (despite giving them big whole numbers and claiming that they are major patches), the game is way too far gone for most people to care. The only patch that would get people to actually sit up and pay attention would be the one that removes the need to be constantly connected to play and increases the city size limits.

Despite modders and hackers proving quite easily just how arbitrary the online and city size limitations are, EA and Maxis have flat out refused to give comment [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/22/the-power-of-silence-why-the-simcity-story-went-away/], hoping that if they just ignore the problem people will forget about it in time for Battlefield 4.

Maxis previously released some free DLC for the game, via two bizarre product-placement tie-ins with a electric car manufacturer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123309-SimCitys-Toothpaste-Partnership-Gets-Off-to-a-Sparkling-Start].

Will Wright, the man who created the SimCity franchise, recently said that SimCity (2013)'s server issues were "inexcusable" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123782-SimCity-Creator-Gamers-Have-Valid-Concerns-About-DRM].

Source: SimCity 3.0 Patch Notes [http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9437292.page#28136320]

Permalink

 

[Legion]

What saddens me the most is the lack of owning up to this screw up properly. It shows that they have clearly not learnt a thing. They are either hoping people will simply forget about it, or they are keeping quiet so as not to put off people who may still want to buy it. As admitting they messed up so soon after release may damage future sales.

I just feel that it shows a lot of disrespect to the customers. Most other industries apologise too much for even minor screw ups, but gaming developers and publishers do not do apologise or admit to it anywhere near enough.

 

[BrotherRool]

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

 

[2fish]

This game keeps telling me I should cross the sim city games off of the buy list. I fear the name may be damaged for some time now.

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

Does this not make you want to buy it? I mean look at the support they are giving their game! Many games just throw support out the window after launch. Look at Aliens CM they still have failed to fix the bugs that keep it from looking like the demo.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

What, did you expect the game to be delivered in any kind of working condition?
Where would we be if games didn't require massive patches due to being rushed out the door way to early?

 

[BrotherRool]

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

Does this not make you want to buy it? I mean look at the support they are giving their game! Many games just throw support out the window after launch. Look at Aliens CM they still have failed to fix the bugs that keep it from looking like the demo.

=D That's a brilliant way of looking at it. It's strange that despite such persuasive logic I'm still untempted to buy a game with not very useful always-online that has been broken for two months since they started selling it to people. There must be something wrong with me

ACM wasn't a bug, the demo had features that Time Gate (the studio that just went bust) put in, and then when Gearbox took control they ripped all of it back out of the game and carried on making it at the level it came out on.

 

[Abomination]

If you are one of the five people still playing the colossal train wreck that is SimCity (2013)

HAH!

My girlfriend is the one who owns the game... I played it once and watched a house burn down because a fire engine was being blocked by an ambulance that needed to go past the fire but couldn't because the fire engine wasn't able to get to the fire to put it out to let the ambulance pass because it was blocked by the ambulance that couldn't move because of the fire-- you get the point.

I might give it another go now that kind of issue has (supposedly) been resolved.

 

[wulfgar_red]

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

don't blame devs or publisher. everyone knows it's piracy fault

 

[Dryk]

From what I read on both Reddit and simcity forums. The population dropped like a rock, and fewer and fewer are playing online.

Annoyingly enough that's more profitable for an always-online game without recurring fees

 

[devotedsniper]

Oh no...please no...the last time you tried to fix this bug my good city is now in standstill at rush hour and for some god damn reason my homeless count went up ten fold...

 

[Idlemessiah]

Reading these articles feels like watching someone bale out a sinking boat with a bucket when they have a perfectly good water pump behind them. Also the bucket has a hole in it.

 

[rodneyy]

They are giving no support.

All patches have been tiny fixes. Traffic isn't fixed because it is highly compressed, not to scale of a real road or city.

Simcity also has shitty roads that don't have the capacity of their real world counter parts.

Hell, there is a video on this.


From what I read on both Reddit and simcity forums. The population dropped like a rock, and fewer and fewer are playing online.

i have been thinking something similar, not along the lines of the video as i have never analysed the game in that way (infact do not even own it) but the whole traffic problems were so obvious that even the most basic of play testing would have found it out.
yes yes i know people say that there is no testing and gamers are being used as free beta testers but they must do some inhouse testing or it would be in an even worse state.
if they could have fixed it they would have before the game was released or if not by then at least in a day one patch or something a lot sooner than now and its still unseen if this patch will do the intended.

 

[Kahani]

A couple of minor patches and it's at version 3.0? I guess we can add version numbering to the list of things they clearly don't understand.

 

[kailus13]

Oh no...please no...the last time you tried to fix this bug my good city is now in standstill at rush hour and for some god damn reason my homeless count went up ten fold...

I read somewhere that your sims don't have an actual home, they just go in a random house. Maybe the ones stuck in traffic count as homeless people.

 

[Yopaz]

What is this? Two months after release and they're still trying to patch major features into a workable condition?

don't blame devs or publisher. everyone knows it's piracy fault

This can't be blamed on piracy. This game has DRM so all piracy has been completely eliminated and no-one can ever play this game without purchasing it.

 

[Colt47]

I'm just finding this whole debacle amusing now, considering the publisher that brought us this travesty now has near exclusive rights to make Star Wars games. I keep getting this picture in my head of some Space Traffic Controller on a Star Destroyer trying to keep tie fighters from running into each other.

 

[4RM3D]

They are giving no support.

All patches have been tiny fixes. Traffic isn't fixed because it is highly compressed, not to scale of a real road or city.

Simcity also has shitty roads that don't have the capacity of their real world counter parts.

Hell, there is a video on this.


From what I read on both Reddit and simcity forums. The population dropped like a rock, and fewer and fewer are playing online.

Of all the issues I saw coming a mile away, this one I wasn't expecting. It is quite interesting to see (from a learning perspective) how one 'small' mechanic can completely wreck a game. At first it seems so easy to solve. But then you find out it is tied into every part of the game.